Fill The Holes
by noemi1225
Summary: Lamia Scale surprises all the other guilds in Fiore with the new mage joining their guild. Her easygoing and kind personality is a great distraction from the fear and pain she hides from others. Something she might not need to do anymore with a certain Dragon Slayer around to help. Rogue/OC.
1. Moved To The City

**Moved To The City**

The mood in the guild hall of Lamia Scale was oddly cheerful and enthusiastic. It's not like they are a gloomy bunch or anything, but they are certainly nothing like Fairy Tail with all the continuous laughter, parties, fun and fights. They do like parties and having fun whenever they can, but on an average day they are more calm and collected. They prefer just enjoying each other's company in a more silent way, than the Fairies do. So when you can feel and hear the excitement lightning through the walls of Lamia Scale from miles away, you can be a 100% sure that whatever is going on, it's worthwhile. Gray, Wendy and Carla felt the same way as they were walking toward the guild. They were sent there by Master Makarov to apologize as one of Natsu's brawls made the whole guild explode with fighting spirit which, as usual, resulted in half of the town's square being destroyed. And considering that the Summer Parade was coming, it just made things ten times worse. So, groups of 2-3 people were sent to every possible organisation and location to apologize for the destruction caused and to pay the costs of the repairs. Lamia Scale was the one in charge of the opening ceremony, so making Gray and Wendy do the hard work seemed the most appropriate thing to do as they were the ones having good friends at the guild. _Maybe they won't be so mad at them_ , Makarov thought.

'They seem to be in really good mood, don't they?' asked Gray finally in a not-so-interested tone, just to break that awfully awkward silence.

'Mmm' nodded Wendy with a small smile in her face. 'I heard that Lyon-san and Yuka-san were on a quite long mission somewhere up north and just returned recently. Maybe they're celebrating their return.'

'You heard that from...?' asked Gray curiously.

'Oh, Sherria-chan told me. We met in the park the other day. She seemed really excited about it' she replied happily.

 _They became quite good friends since the Grand Magic Games_ , thought Gray smiling at the young dragon slayer. Seeing her being happy always brightened both his and Natsu's day.

'Maybe they're not going to ask much about why exactly you guys destroyed half of the stage they raised for the Summer Parade' added Carla ironically making both Gray and Wendy feel guilty, again. And so they made their way to the huge building in silence.

When they reached the door to the main hall, they could definitely hear the guild master's voice but couldn't really make out what she was saying through the murmur of all the other members. As they entered the hall they immediately realised, what all the fuss was about. Or rather, who was it about. They saw the back of an unknown black-haired girl sitting at the bar talking to some of the other members. A new person just joined Lamia Scale, which was kind of odd as a) most of the mages of Fiore were already in a guild, b) being one of the strongest guilds, Lamia Scale rarely had any new applicants (just like all the other big and strong guilds in Fiore). Gray was sure she had to be really strong if she's already a member. This was probably not the right time to let his thoughts run wild but he just couldn't help his curiosity taking over.

'She must be a big deal if she just...' started Gray, but was almost immediately interrupted by Lyon semi-greeting him and Sheeria embracing Wendy.

~v~

News spread quickly and the arrival of a new mage, who was instantly accepted to Lamia Scale, made everyone curious about the newcomer. Thankfully, the Summer Parade was imminent, so people will have a chance to check out her. The fact, that she was a female mage made things much more interesting, especially for the likes of Ichiya and his freaky, good-looking comrades. As there was only an hour or so left till the opening ceremony, more and more people appeared in the square and the nearby inns. Some of the guilds, like Fairy Tail and Sabertooth booked some of the places a couple of weeks before so they could celebrate the festival together. So when they arrived, after the usual greetings and orders, they started gossiping about the new mage, like their lives depended on finding out things about her. Obviously, Natsu and Sting were the most excited about the possibility of a good fight with her; Cana started to tease Juvia about the new girl snatching Lyon away from her, making Juvia blush hard and protest that her heart (and body) belonged to Gray-sama and no one else; Rufus talking about the possibility of some sweet memories to make with her...

Soon, members of other guilds appeared around them, telling about the things they've heard about her, mostly starting with 'They say' or 'I've heard' which made believing them excessively harder. Gray and Wendy were the ones with the most reliable information about her, and they only saw her back, so the guessing game went on until the festival's opening music started. The opening ceremony was incredibly entertaining, with flashy lights, creative use of magic, music, dancing, but the new girl was nowhere to be seen. Well, she just arrived, so no one really thought that she will be participating in the ceremony but still, everyone was waiting for her debut on the stage. The only ones who didn't seem to be bothered by that were the little exceeds, as they were dazzled by all the lights and colours and by all the fish, of course. Carla was sitting in front of Wendy, silently enjoying the music, wiggling her tail slightly, Lily sitting next to her munching on a huge fish Gajeel just brought him, while Lector and Happy were all over the place. And Frosch, well...

'Frosch!' Rogue said while looking around nervously.

He stood up from his place scanning the area looking for his little friend, but found nothing. Shouting would be no good as nothing could be heard because of the loud music and the rambling and singing of everyone. Following Frosch's scent might be a good idea but with all the food courts around he might lose the already faint scent easily, but it worth a try. With this on his mind, Rogue slowly made his way through the crowd. The ceremony has already ended, making him a bit more relaxed as he may now hear Frosch's voice if he's being close to the little exceed. Being lost in his thoughts, he hardly noticed a short girl making her way toward him, but when the smell of Frosch intensified, he finally noticed the exceed sitting in the arms of the aforesaid lady. She was wearing a simple purple T-shirt with some tight ripped jeans and black buckled ankle boots. Her black hair was tied up in a high ponytail, and she had a lot of earrings. Not as much, as Gajeel has, but Rogue could count at least six or seven of them. Finally relaxing a bit, he smiled at his little friend and then looked at the girl with happiness and guilt in his eyes. Her look was not mad or questioning or anything, she seemed really calm and nice.

'You see, I told you he's gonna find you' said the girl to Frosch while lifting the exceed to the height of Rogue's embracing hands.

'Fro thought the same, too' said the little exceed happily.

'Thank you, for helping Frosch out' said Rogue while hugging his friend. He felt he should apologize or at least try to talk himself out of this embarrassing situation. Losing Frosch, again... 'I hope we didn't cause much trouble. I should've been more careful, really.'

'No problem' smiled the girl. 'All that matters is that everything's fine now, right?'

Rogue just stared at her not knowing what to say. She raised her right eyebrow almost simultaneously with the right side of her mouth, wondering what was going on. She didn't break the eye contact the whole time, though. That made Rogue feel really weird, kind of reassuring, kind of disturbed, maybe. He didn't really know. Her eyes... Her eyes were light purple, but you could see all kinds of shades if you observed carefully, and Rogue did.

'Rogue' he bursted out finally, making the girl's eye open wide for a moment. After realising what his intentions were, her expression went back to the calm and soothing she had before. 'Um... I'm Rogue Cheney from Sabertooth.'

'Nice to meet you, Rogue Cheney from Sabertooth. I'm Lacie Andrews from Lamia Scale.'

'She is new in town' Frosch added.

'The one everyone is talking about' Rogue murmured without thinking.

Lacie was not particularly surprised hearing that. Lyon and the others told her that people might get really excited when they learn about her arrival so she was prepared for, well, anything. Or at least she thought so.

'Really? Are you included in everyone?' she asked playfully, sliding her hands into her pockets and tilting her head slightly to the right.

Rogue snapped out of his thoughts, yet again, realising he said things out loud. Things he should've kept for himself. He had no idea what to say now, and he started to feel uncomfortably hot and embarrassed. He opened his mouth while trying to think of a good way not to make things worse when she interrupted.

'Don't worry, it's okay. Lyon said people might act weird around me. Being new in town and all' she explained. 'I'm prepared for all kinds of weirdness.'

Rogue let out a sigh after the reassuring words. Before he could start to talk again he heard a familiar voice shouting something about cats getting closer to them. It was Millianna running toward him and Frosch, followed by Kagura slowly walking behind the crazy cat lady. Frosch jumped out of Rogue's hands running toward Millianna. Rogue was looking at the mages of Mermaid Heel and then Lacie again. She didn't seem to be really interested in the ruckus they were making; she was barely looking at them from the corner of her eye turning her head maybe halfway toward the girls.

'Rogue' Kagura greeted him when she got close enough before taking an indifferent look at Lacie then focusing back on the dragon slayer.

That didn't go unnoticed by Lacie, but she decided to be friendly with the other girl.

'Kagura, Milliana, it's good to see you' said Rogue politely.

'Is that another fan girl of yours, or what?' asked Kagura in a monotonous voice not even bothering looking at Lacie anymore.

Rogue's jaw dropped from the sudden question being afraid his new 'friend' might be offended by the not-so-kind attribute she was given. Instead, Lacie started laughing really hard while closing her eyes and covering her mouth with her left hand. Kagura was extremely surprised by the girl's sudden reaction, but it just made Rogue shyly smile at the ground.

'Oh, wow' said Lacie trying to stop laughing. 'You must be a really popular man, Rogue Cheney from Sabertooth.'

Kagura looked confused partly because of the formal denomination, and partly because she had no idea, who this unknown girl talking to the Shadow Dragon Slayer could be. But when she realised who she might be, it was already too late. The girl continued talking.

'But I'm afraid I should go now. It was nice to meet you, guys' she said grinning widely at Kagura. Then she turned around and started walking toward the stage lifting her left hand in the air while still talking. 'Take good care of Frosch... and your fangirls.'

They could still hear her chuckles while she was walking away. And there they stood, Rogue watching Lacie disappear in the crowd, Kagura still being stunned, and Frosch and Millianna having no idea what just happened.

'Don't tell me she was...' started Kagura.

'The new mage' Rogue finished. 'Lacie Andrews from Lamia Scale.'

~v~

There was something weird about that girl, but Rogue couldn't really tell, what it was. Shortly after their meeting with Kagura and Millianna, he brought Frosch back to where their guild members were, listening to Frosch about how nice Lacie was (mainly because she bought some fish for the exceed in distress).

'Where have you guys been?' asked Sting excitedly. 'You missed the big eating contest!'

'Is that so' said Rogue uninterestedly still thinking about the new Lamia Scale mage.

'Natsu proposed to have a contest between our guilds. The winner guild members can ask anyone from the losers to do something really embarrassing tonight' cheered Lector.

'And our Lady won!' exclaimed Sting happily.

Lucy could be heard from the background asking Yukino about how Minerva was able to eat even more than Natsu without breaking a sweat. Natsu was lying on the floor looking like he was about to die, while some members were either anxiously or excitedly chatting and waiting for the punishments from the Sabertooth mages. Laxus and the Thunder God Tribe left even before the game could actually begin and Master Makarov decided to flee shortly after he saw Natsu almost pass out from all the food he ate. Of course, Gray and some others were about to kick Natsu's ass. Not really acknowledging their guild's victory, Rogue started to talk.

'I met the new girl' he told Sting.

'Fro met her, too' added Frosch happily.

'Really?' Sting asked with his signature wide grin on his face. 'So what is this new girl like?'

And so, Frosch started telling the tale of getting lost, being found and finally reunited with Rogue, then Rogue continued telling Sting about the rather embarrassing Kagura-incident and how Lacie reacted to it. Then Frosch rambled about wanting to play some more with Millianna, but no one really listened to that part of the story. When Sting heard enough of the encounter with Lacie, the games began.

During the night, members of other guilds also gathered around Fairy Tail and Sabertooth, some looking for a certain mage to talk to, some just checking out the funny things the Fairies had to do. Nothing too serious, but enough, to make them feel uncomfortable around other people. Probably Erza had the worst fate, as she had to act friendly to Ichiya when he was around. Which happened a lot as he and The Trimens were hitting on (annoying) Fairy Tail and Sabertooth girls for quite some time now. She had a really hard time being nice to him, her eyes burning holes in Natsu for his damn ideas. Cana was really mad as well because she was not allowed to drink till the midnight fireworks started. However, everyone's favourite was Gray and Natsu wearing each other's clothes for the rest of the night. Even though the sizes fit almost perfectly, they just looked ridiculous. And seeing them fight each other like this seemed even funnier.

As the punishment games went on, Lyon and Lacie were just strolling around the temporary base of the two guilds. Ichiya, sniffing the air a couple of times, turned his head toward the newcomers, his eyes shining.

'What a refreshing scent' he started walking toward the Lamia Scale mages, followed by Eve, Hibiki and Ren. 'A perfume I've never smelled before.'

Most of the mages froze, watching their encounter with the new wizard. Lyon became slightly irritated seeing them but being interested in Lacie's reaction, he decided not to interrupt. Lacie watched the four men with an expressionless face. Ichiya stopped right in front of her, sniffing her profusely, the three other guys standing behind him, admiring her. After a few second, she looked at Lyon and asked:

'What's up with the old man and the creep trio?'

Ichiya and his men fell to the ground after hearing her question, defeated. The others listening were either shocked at her reaction or trying to hide their smiles and laughs. Erza seemed especially proud of Lacie, as she was able to handle Ichiya and his band so carefully. Lyon tapped her shoulder chuckling, proud of her comment.

'Well, the old man, as you called him, is Ichiya-san and they are Hibiki, Ren and Eve' he said pointing at each men on the ground. 'They are all members of Blue Pegasus and usually just…' stopped Lyon once he saw Juvia sitting at a table near them.

In a split second, he disappeared from Lacie's side, sweet-talking to Juvia. Noticing where Lyon's gone Lacie smiled to herself then looked back at the Blue Pegasus members in front of her. A dark haired guy was just about to walk past next to her mumbling something about Lyon, when she heard another guy shouting and saw a table flying toward her and the passer-by. The one throwing the table was a screaming pink-haired guy a couple of meters away from her, looking at the other boy who probably left him in the middle of a conversation or something. Lacie didn't really know what this was about, but this seemed like the start of something fun.

'Astral phase' she murmured lifting her left index- and middle finger to her mouth then pointing them down, slightly to the left.

Before Lyon, Rogue or anyone else could react, the table was directly in front of Lacie and behind Gray. Instead of directly hitting Lacie, the table simply flew through her, crashing into the back of Gray, knocking him to the ground. Everyone's jaw dropped at the sight of the scene, except Lyon who already knew about her powers. Lacie released her magic and turned back to check on the poor boy.

'Gray-sama!' shouted Juvia running toward him, followed by Lucy, Erza and a laughing Natsu.

'Are you alright?' asked Lacie holding out a hand for Gray to grab onto.

After shrugging off some pieces of the broken table, he looked at her with a weird look on his face, letting her help him get up.

'Wow! How did you do that?' asked Natsu excitedly when he got there. 'It was awesome!'

'Well, I just used my magic' answered Lacie simply.

When the others arrived, Erza promptly scolded Natsu for being reckless and rude to the new Lamia Scale mage. They checked on both Gray and Lacie, asking if both were fine. Juvia hugged Gray tightly looking daggers at Lacie, to the latter's amusement. Master Makarov arrived soon, apologising for Natsu's actions. Not that it really bothered Lacie. When the excitement and all the questions died down, Rogue decided to 'step out from the shadows'.

'So were you really prepared for things like this, huh?' he asked suddenly, making the Fairies jump in surprise.

'Where did you come from?' asked Gray.

Lacie looked at Rogue with a wide smile on her face.

'Depends. Are you referring to helping out a lost exceed in a frog suit, being called your fangirl, being smelled by a weird old man, having a table thrown at me or constantly losing my couriers for all kinds of reasons?' asked Lacie smiling.

Before Rogue could react to the seemingly rhetorical question, he was interrupted by the start of the fireworks. They could hear Cana shout in happiness as she made her way toward the nearest alcohol filled barrel. Everyone was watching the beautiful shapes the fireworks created, different animals, the logos of the guilds or just some undefinable shapes. However pretty they were, the only thing Rogue could see was Lacie's face lit by the various colours exploding over the city sky. He suddenly heard Frosch asking him to be lifted to have a better view. Rogue looked down at his little friend, smiling, and crouched down so the exceed could climb on his shoulders. Standing up, he watched the fireworks with Frosch who was really amazed by the sight, commenting something about each shape. Watching the whole scene, Lacie's heart skipped a beat seeing the dragon slayer's kind and caring smile, secretly wishing someone would look at her one day the way Rogue just looked at Frosch. Chuckling at her stupid thoughts, she decided to take a walk on her own while the others were distracted by the fireworks.


	2. Upside Down

**Upside Down**

As Lacie was sitting on the top of some random building's wall, nibbling on a delicious candyfloss and watching the bustling city, she felt a presence approaching her. Something she's learnt to do using her power. Sensing her surroundings without using any of her actual senses. She could also see thing others couldn't. Bad things, scary things. It all started when her magic power awakened. First, she thought she was just simply crazy but when one of those entities started attacking people, she realised that its part of her magic. Or something like that. Thankfully, most of those things didn't have the power to be harmful or dangerous but when they did, the consequences were unpredictable. They usually looked like shadows you see from the corner of your eye. The stronger they got, the more visible they became. She can't remember seeing two similarly looking entities. Some looked like smoke clouds, some had animalistic features and others looked rather human-like. Some others… Well, she didn't like to think about those. Those terrifying human-beast combinations always got her, those were responsible for most of her nightmares and her scars as well. As time went on, she'd learnt to kind of combine her previous two abilities, making herself able to sense when the entities could materialise themselves so she could be there to stop them.

Luckily, this city seemed rather peaceful from this point. And the person behind her was actually a real person which she found rather reassuring. She knew she's already met this person tonight but considering how many people she had to meet, she had no idea who could it be. After getting on the top, the person just stood a couple metres away from her. She could feel no harmful intent, but confusion and possibly shame. That's a good way to start a relationship with someone, making them feel uncomfortable around her instantly. She was not a really sociable person. Being around people for a long time made her really tired, that's why she decided to come her to relax a bit. But she didn't like being at odds with or just not having a friendly relationship with anyone. After waiting for a few seconds to see if her mysterious friend does anything, she finally decided to break the silence.

'You could just sit next to me, you know. Maybe I'll offer you some candyfloss as well' she said jokingly.

She wasn't really into sweet things, but candyfloss was something else. It was the best thing in Earthland she could imagine. Secretly, she hoped that the person behind her doesn't really like candyfloss. As it turned out later, unfortunately, that wasn't the case. She heard unsure footsteps approaching and stopping right beside her.

'I owe you an apology' the girl behind her stated monotonously.

'Do you' said Lacie as she stood up and turned to face the other girl. 'Oh, you're the swordsman from that all-girl guild, right? Sherria told me about you.'

Kagura seemed really surprised at the way Lacie described her. She didn't really mind Kagura's previous 'rude' behaviour. Quite the reverse. She thought it was a really funny situation, something you can reminisce about after a couple of beers or something. And seeing how bad she felt about her comment, Lacie didn't want to make things worse so she decided not to mention this unless she really has to. Thankfully, the guys at Lamia Scale told her all kinds of stories about the other guilds and their members. She especially liked the ones about Fairy Tail. Those were always the craziest ones.

'Kagura Mikazuchi' Kagura said simply.

'Nice to meet you. I'm Lacie.' Lacie replied, smiling, holding out the candyfloss in front of her. 'Want some?'

Kagura just watched Lacie for a second before looking down at the candy. She never actually tried it, so after murmuring a thank you, she accepted the offer. She hesitated for a split second before she put a small portion in her mouth. Her eyes widened as the strawberry flavoured goodness invaded her mouth, making Lacie laugh out loud before motioning Kagura to sit with her. They were just sitting there, eating the rest of the candyfloss for several minutes, not saying a thing. They could see the Parade from there, some kind of magical gun show was happening right now, not something Lacie was particularly interested in. Though, it seemed really impressing even from this far from the actual show. She really wanted some more candy but didn't feel like talking or moving at all. She found Kagura's presence rather soothing, she's always enjoyed being around a silent companion.

'Sorry, I guess I'm not the best company' said Kagura breaking the silence. 'I'm not much of a talker.'

'Don't sweat it' said Lacie honestly. 'I don't mind the silence. It's relaxing; also a good way to improve concentration.'

Kagura nodded with a small, hardly noticeable smile. She found Lacie's behaviour extremely strange. They didn't even know each other and their first encounter couldn't be called ideal either, still, this girl's been really nice to her. And they weren't sitting here in that typical awkward silence that happens when she's with other people. Lacie doesn't seem to mind her reserved attitude and personality. On the contrary, Kagura felt like that deep down Lacie and her were rather similar which made her feel much more comfortable around the new mage. The gun show seemed to be over and some kind of band was on the stage preparing for a concert. It seemed like the amount of people on the Parade increased since Lacie left the scene. She was wondering what the time might be that all these people were still up and had the energy to party. Not that she wasn't a night person and thinking back of the times when she was travelling with some of her hard-core party animal friends, she felt she should just banish these thoughts.

'How about getting some more sweet strawberry-flavoured goodness?' asked Lacie stretching her arms and legs.

Lacie looked at Kagura's eyes for long seconds before she finally nodded with a confident smile.

'They're on me' she said, making Lacie's mouth turn into a big smile.

With that, they got off of the building and made their way back to the Parade, talking about various, mostly magic, guild or country related things. It was mostly Lacie asking questions and Kagura replying them but she didn't seem like minding talking, so Lacie just quietly walked beside the swordswoman and listened to her stories.

~v~

As the band started, two shady figures could be seen sneaking in the alleys next to the dancing and singing crowd and another one trying to mingle with the crowd trying to be as unremarkable and unsuspicious as possible.

The two men slowly but efficiently worked their ways through the alleys, planting explosives to the bottom of each building right next to the partying crowd and the celebrating mages' locations. The one in the crowd silently watched as his men went from alley to alley. He felt an incredible and unexplainable rage towards all these idiots jumping and screaming around him. He didn't really know why. It all started a couple days earlier after he found out that his ex-girlfriend got married. First, he felt happiness knowing that she found a man she could love. But something happened during dinner that night. Or maybe after dinner. He couldn't pinpoint the exact time, he didn't know the reason. The only thing he knew was that he hated that stupid bitch for leaving her, he hated his nosy good-for-nothing neighbours, his boss and co-workers and everyone else in this goddamn city. Scratching the wound on his nape he felt some warm liquid oozing from it. Expecting to see some blood because of his constant scratching, he was surprised to see a thick black liquid covering his fingers. _That's weird_ , he thought for a second, then he focused his thoughts back on carrying out his plan.

Shortly after the two men finished with the explosives, he looked around the crowd and gave signal for his men to detonate.

~v~

Sting and Rogue were walking back from the inn they stayed for the night after putting the tired exceeds to bed. It was already over 2 a.m. and they weren't used to staying up all night long, so the dragon slayers decided to take them home. Yukino offered to bring the exceeds back to the inn so that they could stay there with the Fairy Tail guys. However, Sting really wanted to get some time alone with Rogue so he could question his friend about the new girl more.

'Her magic seemed really interesting' Sting started.

'Hm?'

Rogue tried to act like he didn't know who Sting was talking about. Obviously, Sting knew him better than believing his not-so-believable act. He knew that the Shadow Dragon Slayer couldn't get that girl out of his mind and he wanted to hear Rogue's honest thoughts now that they were alone.

'I bet she's really strong.' said Sting looking at Rogue who just silently nodded in response.

Sting was really surprised that Rogue had nothing to say about Lacie. Well, he knew there was a lot Rogue had to say but it seemed like he just didn't want to. It was weird. Rogue never held back his thoughts on basically anything when he was talking to Sting. They'd already talked about other girls in the past, ones they've met or just saw somewhere, ones they liked and some who they didn't. They discussed what the other was looking for in a girl, things they didn't find attractive about them. However, there was one thing they've never talked before. But it can't be that, can it?

'After that incident with Natsu, a lot of guys' eyes fell on her' started Sting, hoping that his teasing will get the right reaction from his friend. 'I guess they must've noticed her strength. Or her beauty.'

Well, Sting achieved his goal. Rogue stopped dead in his tracks, looking at Sting with wide eyes and a visibly red face. Looking back at him, Sting started laughing really hard at Rogue's honest response. That was the moment Rogue knew that Sting already had him figured out. Letting out a small embarrassed chuckle, just when he thought this can't get any weirder he caught the familiar smell of two people. So did Sting, which just made him laugh even harder.

'Stop it, Sting. It's not funny' said Rogue nervously.

'Is everything alright, Sir?' asked Lacie jokingly. 'Is this gentleman bothering you?'

Stepping next to Rogue, right hand on her hip, she tried putting her left elbow on Rogue's shoulder. What she wasn't expecting was Rogue to be much taller than she was, so she had to raise her arm way over her head and she still couldn't rest her elbow properly on his shoulder. As a result, instead of the cool posture she tried to make, she was just standing there awkwardly trying to keep her balance for a few seconds before she and Sting broke out in laughter, Rogue chuckling and Kagura just standing there looking weirdly at Lacie.

'You're way too tall for this' said Lacie to Rogue, her face red with embarrassment.

'Or maybe you're too short' added Kagura mockingly.

'Is that so' said Lacie as she walked to her repeating her previous actions on her, now, with success. 'Well, if I'm too short than so you are because I can lean on your shoulder just fine.'

Seeing Lacie's and Sing's continuous laughter and Rogue's suppressed smile, Kagura also smiled at Lacie's silliness while shaking her head.

'So… How come you're not at the concert?' asked Rogue hoping to find a topic they could talk about.

'We're on candyfloss hunt' Lacie said seriously.

'Come again?' asked Sting.

'Cotton candy' said Kagura.

'Whatever' Lacie burst out. 'It's the same thing.'

'Except people here don't know what candyfloss is' commented Kagura.

'The salesman did' Lacie replied.

'It's called candyfloss in the southern countries, isn't it' asked Rogue.

'Thank you' said Lacie looking at Rogue and then back at Kagura, 'You see? He also knows.'

'I don't even remember the last time I ate cotton candy' said Sting, practically drooling. 'How about we join your hunt, huh?'

Sting looked at Rogue with a huge grin on his face. Rogue knew why Sting said that. Of course he couldn't remember because they never actually tried it. Which was actually rather surprising as both of them loved sweet things. But they didn't consider eating cotton candy a cool and masculine thing. Sounds stupid, but they used to be rather stupid when it came to their looks and the impressions they made on people before the Grand Magic Games.

'I mean, if it's alright with you' said Rogue to Lacie and Kagura.

'Sure thing' replied Kagura.

'The more the merrier' said Lacie, smiling.

With that, the four of them went to the nearest stand that Sting's nose could find where the Dragon Slayer Duo treated the girls, even though Kagura tried insisting on buying the ones for them but finally gave up seeing the commitment in Sting's eyes. Kagura and Sting decided on strawberry, Rogue on blue raspberry and Lacie on kiwi flavoured ones. Looking at everyone's faces when taking the first bite, Lacie laughed out loud.

'What the hell? How come none of you tried it before?' she asked, kind of impressed how on earth these guys missed eating candyfloss all their lives.

'That's a long story' said Sting, scratching the back of his head.

They started walking back to where the stage and the rest of their guild members were, when Lacie started to have a really bad feeling. Munching on her candy floss, she furrowed her brows while she scanned the place. She could feel something. Something she thought she'd felt before but just couldn't remember what it was. Rogue looked at her from the corner of his eyes before turning his head toward her.

'What's wrong?' he asked in a concerned voice, making Kagura and Sting to look at her as well.

'Dunno' she replied without looking at any of them. 'It's just…. I just thought I….'

'Are you feeling well?' asked Kagura.

'Yeah' she replied still searching in her memories to identify this feeling she had. 'Yeah, I'm fine.'

'Oooon! Lacie-chaaan!' shouted a really excited Toby followed by Yuka.

'I thought I asked you to call me simply Lacie' she replied with a kind smile.

Without any reaction, Toby just ran past Lacie and her companion screaming something about a prize, leaving all of them utterly confused. When Yuka got there, he politely greeted everyone before speaking to Lacie.

'Master was looking for you not too long ago' he informed Lacie.

'Then I guess I should go' she said turning to Kagura and the dragon slayers, smiling. 'Thank you for everything, guys. Later!'

'I'll accompany you for some more time, if you don't mind' said Kagura.

Saying goodbye to the Sabertooth boys, Kagura, Lacie and Yuka went back to their respective guilds. Sting and Rogue also started walking back to their guild mates, Sting eyeing Rogue every couple seconds.

'You really enjoy it, don't you' said Sting.

'It's alright, I suppose' replied Rogue simply.

'I'm not talking about the festival' said Sting, grinning.

Rogue looked at his partner from the corner of his eye. He knew very well that Sting was referring to their previous encounter with Lacie. And yes, he really enjoyed it. He wasn't really used to being around girls except their guild mates. So this situation was different. She was different. She was friendly and curious about them but she wasn't pushy about anything. She not just talked but listened to them, as well. She liked teasing people, but only to the extent that she didn't offend them. She was extremely pretty but not flashy or stuck-up about it. She seemed so ordinary and unique at the same time.

'I suspected.'

They kept walking in complete silence, Sting still grinning and Rogue trying to look as neutral as possible. Still, inside, he felt like mimicking Sting's facial expression the whole time. A couple of seconds later Sting let out a short laugh.

'You don't get it, do you' he said to himself.

'What was that?' Rogue asked.

'Nah, just thinking' replied Sting, still smiling, as they got back to their guild members.

That's when they heard the explosions and some screams from the surprised crowd. A split second later, the buildings surrounding the square started to fall down almost simultaneously. There was no time to save everyone and the mages knew that. Most of the celebrating crowd were to be killed by the collapsing buildings. The luckier ones might've stood far enough from the buildings that they could survive this. Or maybe some of them might be saved by some mages who were either fast or strong enough to clear some space or destroy the collapsing structure to such small parts that don't injure those people. The problem was that the aim of the attack wasn't just to hurt innocent people but everyone attending the Parade, the mages as well. They had to protect themselves, their guild mates and everyone at the Parade as well. Young or old, strong or powerless, man or woman, didn't matter, everyone was in great danger.

Just before anyone could actually decide on who to save first, they saw a light purple glow emerging from the Lamia Scale mages shooting above the people in the square and forming a dome of protective magic shield and a passage to the one side of the square that remained intact after the explosions.

'We have to take everyone out of here' shouted Lyon as he motioned his guild mates where to go the help out the people and the other guilds.

'The perpetrators might still be around' said Erza. 'We'll go and find them.'

'I'll kick their asses for ruining the Parade' screamed Natsu angrily, before storming off with Happy on his side.

'We'll help' said Sting motioning to Rogue.

'Someone should stay here to…' started Yuka before he was cut off by Lacie.

'I'll be fine. It's almost over.'

'Don't tell me she's doing this all alone' said Lucy in amazement.

Lacie was standing in the middle of the purple magic circle, eyes closed, with two smaller magic circles around her outstretched arms. Creating and maintaining such huge shield was draining her magic power at an alarming rate but she knew she could handle it until the danger was over.

'But…' Sherria said worriedly.

'Just trust her' said Wendy, smiling. 'Let's go.'

With that, the rest of the mages stormed off to calm the people down and to take them out of the danger-zone and to find the ones responsible for ruining this year's Parade.


	3. Colourful Charade

**Colourful Charade**

The last thing he remembered was preparing some bacon and eggs for dinner. Now, he found himself standing in the middle of a panicking crowd thinking about why all these people aren't squashed by debris. _Debris? People?_ Looking around, he saw a tall, muscular, blonde guy running his direction motioning to the direction the crowd was moving. Another, elegant-looking guy with green hair run to him and said something to him, pushing him to the same direction the other guy was pointing. He started walking, following the crowd. When he looked up, he saw a purple layer a few metres above his head preventing all kinds of rubble falling on them. That was not right. Turning his head forward he saw what he assumed the source of this magic shield. He was glad that it seemed to be toward the direction he was heading. Looking to his right, he saw one of his men combating with a screaming pink-haired boy while the other was still hiding, waiting for his permission. With a simple nod, the second part of the plan was in motion. His other accomplice started to open a portal, summoning hellish beasts that instantly started attacking a redhead and a half-naked guy. Unfortunately, a blond and a black-haired guy started attacking the person doing the summoning. But the portal was open now and only they could close it, so things were working out just as planned. Almost as planned. He still had to destroy the shield above them. It wouldn't kill as many people as he wanted to but if he's fast enough, some people on the perimeters could still die from the stuff that was still stuck on the edge of the shield. Quickening his pace, he pushed some people out of his way in order to get there faster. Accidentally, one of the men he tried to push over turned out to be a mage who scolded him for shoving. Scolded him, like he was a little kid being naughty on the playground. Just who the hell this guy thinks he is. Who does he think he is talking to? He looked at the slim light-haired guy. Scratching his nape, he was trying to think of the most inconspicuous way to kill him right there, right now. His thought were interrupted by another arriving mage helping the evacuation. It seemed he had to wait with killing him until the shielding mage was killed.

'I'll remember you' he said, looking at the mage with a small forced smile.

Without waiting for a response, he continued his way toward that pillar of purple magic that seemed to power the shield. It took him several minutes to get there and he had to endure the presence of all those filthy screaming meatbags. He hated the thought that he had to stay in one of these disgusting fleshy abominations. _Wait a second. Stay in?_ Scratching his neck, he dismissed the faint thoughts of his vessel and finally separated from the group of people fleeing the scene. He was sneaking behind stands and some makeshift bars, inching closer and closer to his victim.

'So you finally decided to show up' Lacie said. 'There's no need to sneak around like that. I can already feel you're here.'

He stepped out from his current hiding spot. He saw a young short girl standing in the middle of the purple magic circle, surrounded by the same shield that was above the whole square. Her eyes were closed, drops of sweat were trailing down her forehead and the side of her face. She was panting, seemed to be almost out of magic power.

'You're the one doing this?' he asked in disbelief as he walked in front of her.

'You're a great observer, aren't you' said Lacie mockingly.

'You're almost out of power' he added.

'Yeah' said Lacie, looking at the man facing her. 'Only a matter of seconds.'

'I can wait a few more seconds' he said, scratching his nape.

That didn't go unnoticed by Lacie. She at least knew where the entity entered this poor guy's body. It'll be much easier to expel it. Given that she survives what she gets after she releases her shield. Not like she has any other choice but surviving. Someone has to free this guy's body, right?

'I'm Lacie' she introduced herself. 'How do the others call you?'

'Abarrah, the formidable' he said proudly.

Lacie was always impressed by the names these things had. They always sounded so dumb to her but apparently, these should be considered usual in the world of entities.

'Why this guy?' she asked him, observing his reactions as closely as she could.

'Built up anger and bitterness' he replied sitting down on a bench. 'He tried to hide it from the others, so that made him an easier target. Your shield is going down first, right? And then the big one.'

'Yeah' Lacie admitted, chuckling at the honest conversation she was having with a materialised entity.

'Good. I'm already getting bored. And there is so much to do after you're dead.'

'Is that so' Lacie replied. 'Like what? I mean, beside the boring killing people part.'

'Killing is never boring. But, let's see' he started. 'There are some mages fighting with my servants. I have to kill them, first. One of my men opened a portal to let my pets out but it is really small, I was thinking about widening it. The sooner they can come out, the better. Oh, and there's that other guy I have to kill. He pissed me off when I was coming to get you.'

Lacie'd never really thought about this, but now she was wondering if entities could lie or not. Maybe it was something only humans did because this guy just told her all his plans. Well, maybe he just thought that she'll already be dead by the time these things happen so letting her know about them is fine. Her shield was weakening but she could still hold it up for maybe a minute or so. That gave her some more time to figure some way out to survive this guy's attack.

'What guy?' she asked, panting.

'Hard to describe. To me, most of you look the same. Let's see…' he said, trying hard remembering that guy's face. 'His hair was light. Really light. But not white, just um… light. He wasn't really tall but he was taller than me.'

Lacie was completely dumbfounded. This guy was actually trying to properly answer her question. At least that made him concentrate on something else, not her. She was feeling really weak but she hoped she still had enough power to take a couple of hits from this guy. She was worried about the people who were still under the protection of her shield. She estimated that most of them were already evacuated and the rest of the mages can probably protect the remaining ones.

'Oh, and there was this weird dog-like creature talking to him' he explained, making Lacie's eyes widen as she realised who he was talking about. 'I might kill that thing as well. It was creeping me out.'

'Don't you dare to lay even a finger on them' growled Lacie staring daggers at the man.

'You're boring' he said and with a snap of his fingers, he summoned two of his supposed pets. 'They'll take care of you.'

'What? Wait!' she shouted as he disappeared from her view and the two creatures made their way toward her.

The fact that these thing made no noise whatsoever had always creeped the hell out of her. One of the creatures, which was resembling a big wolf, circled around her while the other, which looked like strange half-octopus half-lizard thing, used its tentacles to check is her shield was still protecting her. _I'll be fine_ , she though back to what she told the others bitterly. As she was thinking of a way to close the portal to prevent more of these things coming to this realm, she felt one of the tentacles wrapping around her neck and another on her left arm and yanking her out of the magic circle, dislocating her shoulder in the process. Her skin was burning where that thing touched it. She could see the shield disappearing and the rubble it was still holding falling down. She was hoping everyone would be fine but was quickly forced to focus on her situation at hand as she felt sharp pain piercing through her as the other entity's jaw closed on her left lower leg. _I'll have a pretty bad headache tomorrow_ she thought as she created two knifes using her psychic power.

~v~

They were getting tired. No matter how many times they knocked those two guys down, they always got up. And those black things didn't stop coming from the portal. Natsu and Gajeel were fighting one of the perpetrators and Sting and Rogue were up against the other one. Lucy and Yukino were working on closing the portal while Erza, Kagura, Gray and Lyon fought against the things coming out of it. The other mages were to protect and help the innocent people to escape. It finally seemed that the number of those creatures decreased and both perpetrators were lying on the ground for the fourth or fifth time now. That's when without any warning, the shield above them just disappeared. Fortunately, they weren't in the way of the falling rubble. They looked at each other, confused, Rogue looking at Sting with a hint of fear in his eyes.

'Lacie' Lyon said, looking in the direction where the pillar of magical energy should've been supporting the shield.

'Finally' a voice said from the direction the crowd was directed to. 'She said she could last only a few more seconds. And she kept holding on till I got here.'

'Who are you?' asked Gray.

'What have you done to her?' asked Kagura angrily.

'You can call me Abarrah. And I talked to her' he replied simply.

'You did what?' asked Sting in disbelief.

'Talk. Converse' he replied looking at Sting. 'Chat.'

They looked at him, utterly confused of his behaviour. When he saw that they didn't seem to understand what he wanted to say, he decided to elaborate for these dumb people.

'Well, she asked me questions and I replied' he said before he stopped for a second, thinking. 'That's what you call talking, right?'

'Why, what do you call it?' asked Gray.

'We don't have a word for it. Come to think of it, we don't have a word for anything. Normally, we don't talk, you see.'

'What are you?' asked Erza.

'I don't really know myself' he admitted. 'I've been just roaming around here for a really, really long time. Waiting. Searching for a way to entertain myself. It's really boring just… being. I mean I have many pets, as you can see. But they bore me as well.'

'These things are your pets?' asked Erza with disgust.

'Indeed. They seem to really like human flesh, so I thought I'll treat them for dinner tonight' he said with an expressionless face.

'Cut the crap and just fight me already' interrupted Natsu, getting ready to launch himself at the unknown man.

'I don't fight' said the man simply, as his servants emerged in front of him. 'I'm just trying to have fun.'

'You didn't answer my question properly' said Kagura.

'The question being?' he asked.

'What have you done to Lacie' growled Rogue.

'Oh, her. Right. I didn't like her power. She seemed dangerous' he said simply. 'So she became the main meal for my favourite pets. They deserve the best I can find.'

Without a second thought, the dragon slayers threw themselves at the two servants, trying hard to make their attacks to reach that expressionless bastard. Meanwhile, more creatures started passing through the portal. No matter what they tried, neither the celestial mages nor their spirits could close it. Looking around the fighting crowd, Abarrah's eyes settled on Lyon for a second.

'I've found you' he said as he started walking toward Lyon.

Looking at him from the corner of their eyes, both Lyon and Gray attacked him simultaneously but both of their attacks missed. Well, they didn't miss but were nullified before they could've reached him.

'I can kill you as well, I guess' he stated, looking at Gray.

Raising his arm to the air, he started chanting in an unknown language. Bits of black goo started to surround the two ice mages and the summoned creatures seemed to lose interest in attacking them, sensing the apparent danger. Suddenly, both Abarrah's hands and his nape was pierced by purple glowing arrows with sting-like magic ropes attached to them. Gray and Lyon looked at the source of the magic ropes and were glad to see Lacie standing on the top of a pile debris, with a wide smile on her face and her purple overflowing magic sparkling around her eyes. Beside this, she didn't look really good. She had a bleeding wound in her left leg and one in her stomach with burns around her neck and left arm. She looked exhausted and almost ready to pass out. Something most of them could also say about themselves.

'No desserts before you finish the main dish' Lacie said cockily and with one swift movement, she pulled Abarrah back from the ice mages. 'I got this' she said as she descended to where her opponent was lying on the ground, not moving.

'You shouldn't be here' he commented.

He wasn't moving but he was following Lacie with his eyes, which totally creeped her out. But right now she had to focus on one thing: expelling Abarrah from this body. However, the fact that he didn't put up a fight worried her. It seemed way too easy to knock him out. She stopped a few steps away from him to analyse the situation. She could feel nothing. Like this guy wasn't actually lying right in front of her. Either her senses were becoming numb for some unknown reason or this thing in front of her wasn't really him. Really? Using an illusion against a psychic mage? These thing can be super dumb sometimes.

'Are you afraid to come closer?' he asked.

And now he was trying to anger her as a distraction? Although, she should be thankful that most of the entities are not really smart because that would make her job so much harder. The plan was simple: wait, evade, attack. The others can take care of Abarrah when the body is not possessed anymore.

'I wouldn't say that' she said while mentally preparing herself to counter the attack coming from behind her. 'I'm just being cautious.'

She heard someone shouting her name but didn't really care about it at that moment. Crouching down to avoid the incoming attack, she turned around, stood up quickly and grabbed her attacker by the throat and his right arm. Abarrah looked at her with the same expressionless face he had the whole time, except now you could see fear in his eyes. _I got you now_ , Lacie thought. Focusing the rest of her magic on her hand grabbing his neck, she was ready to end this fight.

'Expel' she said as a faintly glowing magic circle appeared where her hand connected to his neck.

Giving out a deafening shriek, a black figure started emerging from an open wound on the guy's nape. As he couldn't possess the body anymore, most of his power seemed to vanish along with the two other figures fighting against the dragon slayers. As the bodies of the two servants slowly melted away two piles of black slime, the portal also seemed to close on its own.

'Was he doing this all alone?' asked Yukino, surprised.

Pulling the guy by his arm while keeping him in place without suffocating him was really challenging for Lacie in her current condition but she needed only a few more seconds to finish. She managed to return her shoulder to its normal position but using it hurt pretty badly. Her bitten leg was about to give out and she didn't even remember why her stomach hurt. No matter the pain, she had to do this. She won't let this thing hurt her friends. If someone told her a few months, or even a few weeks ago that she'll be worrying about saving her friends' lives, again, she's laughed at them. But here she was. Fighting for her friends, fighting to stay alive. Lost in her thoughts, she didn't even notice when the expulsion was finished. As there was no more force pulling that poor guy's body backward, the sudden momentum made her fall back pulling the unconscious guy to her side. Looking up, he saw the real Abarrah, the formidable. This thing wasn't kidding. Standing at least 10 metres tall and around 5-6 metres wide, the minotaur-shaped completely black entity turned its head in her way forming a hammer from its hand as it raised it up, ready to smash and probably flatter her like pancake. _Lacake. Or maybe a Pancie._ She thought about a good way to combine her name with pancake, but none of those sounded really good.

Before the entity could even start its attack, she could feel two muscular arms grabbing and lifting her up easily and taking her to where Lucy and Yukino were standing. Rogue and Gajeel took her and the unconscious man to a safer location while Sting and Natsu were practically kicking the entity's ass without breaking a sweat. It didn't take more than 5 blows from the two dragon slayers to completely obliterate it.

'Are you alright?' Rogue asked, still holding her in his arms.

'I…' Lacie tried speaking, thinking how unbelievably strong these guys were to defeat that incredibly strong entity in mere seconds. Even in her best moments, it would've taken her a tremendous amount of time and effort to do it. Also, realising the position she was currently in, she looked Rogue directly in the eye, chuckling before actually speaking again.

'Yeah. Kinda' she replied finally. 'Could you…'

With a light blush creeping up on his neck, Rogue put Lacie down on her feet, mumbling something about being sorry. Behind them, Yukino and Lucy looked at each other knowingly, smiling kindly at them and Gajeel grinning like an idiot. As the others finished with the rest of the loose beasts, Wendy and Sherria also got there to treat their wounded friends. While being healed by Sherria, Lacie just looked at the place where the entity stood just a few minutes ago thinking about ways to improve herself.

'You did a great job' Lyon told her when he arrived there along with Kagura, Erza and Gray. 'I'm glad you're alright. When I saw the shield disappearing I…'

'Told you I'll be fine, right?' interrupted Lacie looking at him with a weak smile on her face.

'This wasn't the first time you've seen one of those things, was it' said Erza looking at Lacie with concerned eyes, making everyone silently look at her.

'And it wasn't the last time, either' Lacie replied, staring into the nothingness left behind Abarrah, only to see Natsu and Sting running towards them with wide, smiling faces. _At least they'll brighten the mood a bit_ , she thought.

Rogue looked at Lacie with sad eyes, hoping he'll never have to see her in such state as she was in right now. Looking to his side, he saw Gajeel looking at him, still smirking. Giving him a questioning look, Gajeel just chuckled before passing by him, and ruffling his hair like he was a little kid. Surprised, Rogue just smoothed his hair in silence wondering if it was as easy for Gajeel to understand him as it was for Sting. He sincerely hoped that it was not the case.


	4. A Side of Love

**A Side of Love**

No one slept much that night. After tending to the wounded and assessing the damage, they decided to start the restorations only in the morning so that everyone could rest at least for a few hours. The civilians were taken to some temporary living quarters where they could spend the night. Lacie and Sherria went to the infirmary to take care of the unknown man who was possessed. He showed no signs of waking up or reacting to anything they tried on him. On their way home, Yukino, Sting and Rogue tried to make sense of the night and wondered what those things they fought against could have been.

'Does it really matter?' asked Sting when he had enough of the guessing game. 'We won and nobody was seriously injured. Oh, and did you see when Natsu and me kicked the big guy on the face simultaneously? That was so awesome.'

'You did a great job defeating that monster, Master' said Yukino smiling kindly at Sting before looking at Rogue mischievously. 'And you did a great job saving Lacie, Rogue.'

'She didn't really need to be saved' admitted Rogue. 'I'm sure she could've taken care of herself. I just…'

'You just felt like getting close to her' Sting said with a huge grin.

'What? That's not what I wanted to…' started Rogue explaining.

'You knew she wasn't in imminent danger but you still felt like protecting her' said Yukino trying to strengthen the Shadow Dragon Slayer's self-confidence. 'I think that's really kind of you. And I'm sure she also appreciates your thoughtfulness. That's what Sting meant, right?'

'No way that…' started Sting but looking at Yukino's intense stare, he decided to change what he wanted to say. 'I mean, sure. That's exactly what I thought, too.'

'Right' mumbled Rogue rolling his eyes at his guild mates weird stare contest.

Getting back to their scared and worried exceeds, Rogue and Sting went to bed trying to take a short nap. They were way too exhausted to care about showering, they could just do it after getting up. At least the cold water would help them waking up. Hugging Lector under his blanket, Sting was asleep in mere seconds after laying down. Even though he could fall asleep easily, Rogue could tell that Sting was a rather light sleeper lately. Since the Grand Magic Games, to be precise. Not that it improved Rogue's own sleeping habits. He found it especially hard to sleep since that day. With Frosch curled up next to him, Rogue tried his best to relax and get at least an hour of sleep. Closing his eyes, he tried thinking back to the more fun parts of the previous day: finally getting off the train, successfully bathing Frosch, meeting with Lacie, having cotton candy with her, holding her in his arms… _Woah_ , he stopped his train of thoughts as he opened his eyes and inhaled sharply, flushing at his own thoughts.

No one slept much that night, especially Rogue. Every time he closed his eyes he saw her face, when he was about to fall asleep the smell of her skin or the sound of her laughter jolted him awake. He was glad he didn't wake poor Frosch up when those happened but he was sure Sting was awakened each and every time. Damn, he's going to nag him about that for weeks.

Getting out of bed after their restless night, the Dragon Slayer Duo decided to skip breakfast in the inn and head to the square to grab something to eat with the also tired exceeds. None of them were morning persons. Even the usually upbeat White Dragon Slayer dragged himself groggily through the almost empty city streets. Arriving to the city square, they saw Mira and Cana at an open bar, the latter already drinking and motioning them to join her. Team Natsu was already – or still – up, having breakfast and coffee to start their day. A few minutes later, Lacie and Lyon also arrived there, seemingly arguing about something. She had a simple grey turtleneck poncho on with a white long sleeve shirt but some of the bandages could still be seen, her hair in a side French braid.

'Lacie…'

'What? That's just a simple question' said Lacie.

'I know what you're thinking and you should stop it' said Lyon seriously.

'Hey! New girl!' shouted Cana.

'And you say that because you know I'm right' replied Lacie.

'New girl!' Cana shouted again.

'I say that because you're a member of our guild, a member of our family, now. So you shouldn't…'

'Lyon!' screamed Cana, making Lyon face her. 'Send her here!'

'I think she means you' said Lyon to Lacie, smiling. 'Just go. I'll get your coffee.'

Looking to the direction the voice came from, Lacie saw a brunette sitting at a bar table with a barrel placed on the stool next to her. Another white-haired girl stood on the other side of the bar, preparing drinks and looking at the other girl with a smile Lacie found pretty creepy.

'Yeah, you. Come here' Cana said waving her arms.

Glancing over Lyon for a second, Lacie started walking toward the girls. She recognised the girl behind the counter. Remembering the stories the others told her about this girl's and her siblings' powers, she wondered if being around her is a good idea. Especially looking at her kind, smiling face knowing what incredible power that smile hides. Lyon went to grab some breakfast for himself and coffee for Lacie, then sat down with the Fairy Tail guys and the Twin Dragon Slayers.

'Have a drink and play with us' Cana said, throwing her arm around Lacie's shoulder.

'Thanks, but I don't really drink' she said politely. 'Especially not at 7 a.m.'

'Are you over 18 yet?' asked Cana.

'That's not the issue here' replied Lacie, raising her right eyebrow.

'Then you're afraid to spill some juicy gossip, aren't you?' Cana said excitedly. 'Maybe some dirty secrets?'

'What?' asked Lacie looking at Cana confusedly.

'Cana means that you could use some rest, that's all' lied Mira with her trademark smile. 'You don't have to drink if you don't want to. It's just something Cana likes doing while playing Would You Rather. Helps her think of fun questions to ask.'

'I don't really have time now' smiled Lacie. 'I still have to help out back in the infirmary for some time. But I might join you a bit later.'

'I'll take you up on that' said Cana.

'We'll be around here somewhere with the kids or helping with the repairs' explained Mira. 'You can just drop by when you need some refreshments.'

'Sure. Thanks' said Lacie as she walked to the others to finally get some much needed caffeine.

She hoped it'll help her pounding head. She always had really bad headaches after overusing her magic. Not that her low blood pressure helped, but she could easily fix that with coffee. God, she loved coffee. Black and bitter, just like her past was and her expectations for the future are. Sitting down next to Lyon, she felt her heart melt seeing Frosch sitting on Rogue's lap, munching the pieces of fish the sleepy dragon slayer gave the even more sleepy exceed.

'How are you feeling?' asked Wendy kindly.

'Tired' Lacie admitted with a smile. 'But fine, thanks.'

'And how's that man doing?' asked Erza.

'Sherria and Lacie worked on fixing him all night' said Lyon grimly. 'He's still not waking up.'

'There's nothing more we can do now' said Lacie. 'His body and mind are healed. The rest is up to him.'

'What do you mean?' asked Carla.

'He has to process things' tried Lacie explaining. 'Comprehend what happened to him.'

'That some black monster possessed him and tried to kill a bunch of innocent people?' asked Gray honestly, making everyone fall silent and feel awkward.

Rogue could imagine what poor guy was going through. He could imagine it better than anyone else, he thought, not being strong enough to fight his own demons. Feeling bitter and ashamed, he got lost in his thoughts for a second thinking back to the last day of the Grand Magic Games, just to be brought back to reality by Sting' voice.

'It's not like it's his fault' said Sting.

'Sting's right' said Lyon looking at Lacie. 'It wasn't actually him doing all those things, was it?'

'No' said Lacie staring into her coffee mug. 'He wasn't the one in control. He was merely a spectator of his own life. He had no choice but to watch himself trying to hurt others.'

'That's terrible' mumbled Wendy in a sad voice.

'Yeah. There was no way he could've fought it' continued Lacie. 'And now he has to understand that he shouldn't blame himself for what happened.'

'It's obviously not his fault' repeated Natsu Sting's thought.

'That's right. Nobody blames him for any of this' said Lucy.

'There are times when what others say doesn't really matter. Sometimes our own voices have the most impact on us. And sometimes these same voices can be the cruellest of them all' said Lacie before standing up and going back to the infirmary to replace Sherria, leaving the other mages speechless, thinking about how easily all of them can relate to this issue.

~v~

She really needed a drink. She'd spent the whole day sitting next to the still unknown, unconscious guy's bed but he showed no signs of improvement. She knew the other mages were working hard all day on the repairs and she was just sitting there doing nothing. Although, Master Ooba ordered her to stay here and don't even think about doing anything that requires her using her magic. Until it's fully replenished, that is. She thought about telling her that she's already fine but she didn't feel like being spun by her master. So after a mage she was not really familiar with came to take her place, she directly headed to the Fairy girls to take up on their previous offer.

'The rules are really simple' said Mira. 'One of us asks: would you rather do this or that. Then the other two can ask a few questions related to the answers so they could decide which of the two to pick.'

'What makes it fun is that you can think of stuff about anyone and anything. And as we play it with everyone we can, nobody should feel bad asking weird questions about the other' grinned Cana remembering some of her favourite moments of playing.

'I don't really know many people, though' admitted Lacie.

'I'm sure we can work something out' replied Cana with another mischievous grin.

Rogue saw Lacie sitting down next to Cana who eagerly filled a mug with beer for her. Sometimes he was glad for his enhanced senses as a dragon slayer but right now he felt like a creep eavesdropping on Lacie' conversation with the Fairy girls.

'Plus, it doesn't have to be about someone specific' said Mira. 'You can just say something like… Would you rather eat someone's toenails or pubic hair.'

Hearing the question, Lacie almost spat her beer out, making her cough. The two girls started laughing at her reaction and Lacie just realised what she had gotten herself into.

'Okay, so let's start with something simple. Would you rather…' started Cana thinking. 'Would you rather share your house with Natsu or Gray?' said Cana pointing to the two boys, in case Lacie didn't remember them.

'Does Happy come along with Natsu?' asked Mira.

'Yup.'

'Is he the blue exceed?' asked Lacie.

'Yeah' Cana answered. 'They're inseparable. If you choose Natsu, you choose Happy as well.'

'I see. So, what kind of house are we talking about?' asked Lacie.

'I see you get the hang of it' said Cana laughing. 'Well, nothing spectacular. You have two bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen and a small living room area.'

'Do they pay the rent properly?' asked Mira.

'Sure. They can take care of that on their own.'

'Can I control the heating in my bedroom separately?' asked Lacie.

'Hmmm… No, you can't' smiled Cana.

'Do they buy food for themselves?' asked Mira.

'Sometimes. Other times they take everything they find in the kitchen.'

'Do they eat a lot of fish?' asked Lacie, making both Cana and Mira laugh.

'Yeah. Happy loves fish' answered Cana, still laughing. 'Does that bother you?'

'If they bring a dozen of fresh fish home, yeah' she said simply. 'You could smell it in all your clothes and furniture for weeks, maybe months.'

'Now that you mention it…' added Mira. 'I don't think I would like that either.'

'So, is it Gray then?'

'What about that blue-haired girl?' asked Lacie. 'The one who Lyon likes. Isn't she in love with Gray or something?'

'Right. What would Juvia do then?' asked Mira.

'I'm glad you asked' said Cana, turning to Lacie with and evil grin. 'She would be peeping on you 24/7.'

'Now I understand why you play this game' said Lacie with a nervous laugh.

'Okay. Both of you have one last question before answering. Mira?' said Cana finally.

'I think I'll just choose Natsu. I don't think I'd like to be spied on. I could get used to the smell of fish, I guess.'

'Alright' Cana said smiling. 'Lacie?'

'Can I lock my bedroom door?' she asked making Cana laugh really hard and Mira just stare at her with wide eyes.

'No way' Cana replied.

'Then definitely Gray' Lacie said. 'Natsu and Happy seem like the kind of people who would rummage through your underwear drawer just for fun.'

'Now that you mention it' said Cana. 'I think they did that with Lucy once.'

'Or maybe a bit more than once' Mira added.

The thought that actually happening to Lacie infuriated Rogue to such level that he had to take a walk to clear his head. What on earth is wrong with him? Why is he angering himself with thinking about what other guys have to do with Lacie's underwear? It's not like it's any of his business. He doesn't even know her that well. Moreover, it seemed really inappropriate thinking about such things. Taking a deep breath, he was trying to divert his thoughts from her when he heard his friend behind him.

'It's really funny, you know' Sting admitted.

Rogue looked at him with a questioning look. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't think of anything that his friend should label as funny.

'What you're doing. It's better than a comedy show' said Sting, grinning.

'What is that supposed to mean?' asked Rogue hesitantly.

'Come on, Rogue' started Sting with the nicest smile he could manage. 'I know you better then you know yourself.'

Rogue rolled his eyes in response to his friend's statement, making Sting laugh.

'Seriously, you obviously like her. You should just go and talk to her or something' said Sting as he walked closer and put his hands on Rogue's shoulders. 'You can't win a lady's heart by silently watching her.'

~v~

'I think there's a dead spider in my beer' said Lacie as she was trying to fish its body out with her finger.

'I thought I saw something climbing into you mug' admitted Mira happily as Lacie finally got poor thing out of the beer, wiping her finger in a napkin.

'You still gonna drink that?' asked Cana.

'Given that there are no more suicidal animals in it' Lacie replied examining her drink before taking a sip.

'That's the spirit!' shouted Cana, patting Lacie in the back. 'It's your turn now.

'Hmm… Let's assume that you have to wear one person's clothes for a week. But you can wear them only in his or her style' started Lacie.

'Alright' said Mira while Cana nodded.

'Would you rather wear the clothes of Wendy…' she paused looking at the girls. 'Or Orga.'

'Are you asking me if I'd rather wear cute girly or men's clothes?' asked Cana.

'Seems simple enough' said Mira looking at Lacie with a questioning look.

'You have to wear them in the same size as Wendy and Orga do' added Lacie.

'So either oversized or way to small' said Mira thinking.

'In every aspect' said Cana looking down her chest. 'Wait, do I have to wear everything they do? Like can I just not wear bra for a week?'

'Sure, why not.'

'How about panties?' asked Mira

'Well, you doesn't seem to be the type… But sure. You don't have to put them on if you don't want to' said Lacie making Mira's face turn as red as her own dress was.

'Wait a minute' said Cana. 'So if I choose Wendy, I either put on undersized or no panties?'

'Basically, yes.'

'What? That's not fair' complained Cana.

'No' said Lacie simply, sipping from her beer. 'But that's why you play this game, isn't it?'

'I knew it was a good idea to ask you to play' grinned Cana, finishing her keg of beer. 'Let's see… How tall is Wendy?'

'Not tall enough' sighed Mira sadly.

'And Orga doesn't wear any shirts' said Cana laying down on the table.

'No, he doesn't' said Mira with even more sadness in her voice. 'But at least he has a belt on, so the pants won't fall off.'

Lacie put her left elbow on the table and rested her chin in her hand, looking at the girls alternately while smiling viciously.

'And they say we're the mean players' said Cana pouting.

'Have you ever seen Wendy wearing jeans? Or a long dress?' asked Mira from Cana.

'I don't think I have. Only stockings. But that doesn't really help us out, does it' she answered. 'Maybe Orga has some shirts. He just doesn't normally wear them.'

'Maybe' said Lacie in a monotonous voice.

'Oh, but he has that thingy on his pants' said Cana happily.

'But you have to wear the clothes in his style as well' added Mira.

'On your hip on nowhere' said Lacie.

'But that doesn't make any sense at all' shouted Cana angrily. 'Why is it there? What's the purpose of it?'

Lacie started laughing, laying on the table while Cana rampaged and Mira shed some silent tears thinking of the possible results of both answers. No one really liked playing Would You Rather with Cana and Mira as sometimes they could think of the cruellest questions and choices any sane person could propose. It seemed that this time, they met their match. After Cana calmed down, she decided on wearing Wendy's clothes and Mira choose Orga's.

Opening a new keg, Cana started looking around the present mages, thinking of a good question to ask. As she couldn't think of anything evil at the moment, she just decided to ask what she and Mira'd been planning to ask from Lacie the whole day.

'Oh, I have a good one' smiled Cana slyly, winking at Mira. 'Would you rather go out on a date with Rogue or Sting?'

'I was expecting a question about the Twin Dragon Slayers sooner' said Mira looking at Lacie from the corner of her eye.

'I wanted to ask this one sooner, actually' said Cana. 'But something fun always came to my mind after your questions. So?'

'Do I know what we're doing on the date or it's not specified?' asked Mira.

'Well, it's not specified. But you can't think of anything they wouldn't or couldn't do. Like a hot air balloon ride or something.'

'What does that supposed to mean?' asked Lacie.

'Oh, I guess you don't know about that' said Mira. 'All the dragon slayers have motion sickness. Though, most of them doesn't like speaking openly about it.'

Mira looked at where Laxus was sitting with a sly smile. Following her eyes, Lacie looked at the muscular blonde man. She remembered Jura talking about that guy, the one who defeated him at the Grand Magic Games. She didn't feel like crossing paths with him under any circumstances ever. She felt like just a simple look from this guy would be enough to break some of her bones. Not that he looked menacing or anything, but she'd rather not get too close to him. Looking away from him, Lacie's eyes darted to a nearby tree as she saw the upper branches move in an unnatural way.

'If he's a dragon slayer' Lacie started, 'how come he doesn't have an exceed?'

'He's not a first generation dragon slayer' said Cana with an uninterested voice.

'Nor a third generation one' added Mira.

'What are you two talking about?' asked Lacie with a confused expression.

'Well, long story short, there are first generation dragon slayers who were taught by dragons,' started Mira explaining. 'There are second generation ones who have Dragon Lacrimas implanted.'

'And if you combine these, you get a third generation dragon slayer. Like Rogue or Sting. That reminds me of my original question' smiled Cana. 'So?'

It took several seconds for Lacie to process all the information she just heard. The guys at Lamia Scale didn't go this far into the topic of dragon slayers when they talked about Natsu and the others. Maybe they didn't think it would interest her or just didn't feel like going into lengthy explanations if not necessary. Though, she still didn't understand why that guy doesn't have an exceed friend around but she didn't want to drag on the conversation any longer. She drank the rest of her beverage before looking at Cana.

'Rogue' she answered simply before she stood up and started walking away from the Fairy girls' table.

Looking at each other with wide eyes, Mira started chuckling as Cana turned around on her chair to look where Lacie was going.

'Would you care to explain?' she semi-shouted after her.

Lacie turned around to look at the girls, smiling.

'No.'

With that, she slowly walked to the aforesaid tree. She looked up with a smile, tilting her head to the left. Cana and Mira were watching her trying to figure out what made her quit the game.

'What are you doing there?' she asked kindly, looking at poor Toby who seemed to be desperate but unable to get down.

'A squirrel took my sock' he said with a slight excitement is his voice. 'And I got it back.'

'Good job, Toby' Lacie replied. 'So… Why don't you come down to celebrate your success?'

Sting, Rogue, Yukino, Minerva and the exceeds arrived at the scene just in time to witness Lacie trying to sweet-talk Toby off of the tree. Some other mages seemed to notice that something mildly interesting was going to happen so they glanced over to her every now and then. Lyon made his way to where Lacie was standing while other Lamia Scale members were just smiling at Toby's usual behaviour.

'I can just celebrate here' Toby tried arguing, just to avoid telling Lacie that he can't get down.

'It would be much better celebrating with your friends, wouldn't it?' she asked.

'But the view is really pretty here' Toby lied.

 _There's no way he sees anything beside a bunch of leaves up there_ , she thought as she tried suppressing her chuckles. Looking behind, she saw some mages staring and smiling at her, especially Cana and Mira and Lyon coming, hopefully to help her out.

'Alright' said Lacie, thinking. 'But it would be tough to get you a drink or anything while you're so high up, you know. You should climb a bit lower so I could just give stuff to you.'

'Oooon! That's a good idea, Lacie-chan!' he said happily as he gathered some courage and tried his best getting down.

'Don't tell me you got stuck again' said Lyon as he got next to Lacie.

Hearing Lyon's comment, Toby realised Lyon was right and there was no way he could possibly get down on his own. So he just stopped dead on his track and started crying. The others could see two streams of tears falling down on Lacie and Lyon, who were standing right under Toby. Lacie turned her head slowly to Lyon's direction, giving him the meanest look she could manage without actually smiling. But seeing the now seemingly rivers of tears making Lyon's spiky hair, that is usually jutting upward, dangle awkwardly on all possible sides of his head, she lost it. She burst out laughing, covering her eyes with her left hand, hoping that not being able to see him will help her calm down.

'Yeah, we're soaked to the skin in Toby's tears who, by the way, still can't get down of the tree' said Lyon in an unimpressed voice. 'And you just start laughing. That doesn't really he…'

He was suddenly interrupted by Toby, and the broken branch he was previously sitting on, falling on him. This obviously made her laugh even more, now, joined by some other Lamia Scale members gathering around them either to help Lyon and Toby up or just to simply make fun of them. Looking around the smiling crowd to see who was still interested in what was happening, Lacie found herself locking eyes with two mesmerising crimson orbs. Rogue was looking at her, smiling like everyone else. Well, that wasn't actually true. His smile was different than the others', softer and kinder and filled with emotions, which made Lacie's heart skip a beat. Now she understood what people meant when they said they had butterflies in their stomachs. She found herself grinning like an idiot so she just averted her eyes back to Lyon and the others, not to make a complete fool out of herself in front of people. In front of Rogue. She found it fascinating how a simple smile could turn people's lives upside down. Or at least his smile. And her life.


	5. Neither One Prepared

**Neither One Prepared**

Thanks to the combined powers of all the mages, most of the repairs were already finished by the very first day. The rest of the works included simple things like painting the insides and outsides of the houses, reinstalling the lighting systems, planting flowers and refurnishing the houses, if possible. Most of the mages and guild already went home as not many of them were needed to finish the rest of the works. There was one building that was not rebuilt, yet. A mansion-like building that stood abandoned and neglected near the town square for many years now. So taking advantage of the situation, the mayor proposed that it should be rebuilt as a community centre and asked the help of the present mages to do it based on some plans that'd been in his possession for a few months. Obviously, they had the decency not to ask for any payment and the mayor seemed to be expecting this. Cunning bastard. As the twin dragon slayers and their exceeds were on their way to the construction site, Sting couldn't stop mocking Rogue for not having the courage to just ask Lacie out to get a coffee or something.

"As if it would be that easy" murmured Rogue, annoyed by his partner's persistency.

"Believe it or not" said Sting with the most serious face he could manage, "it is."

"Fro thinks so, too" added Frosch happily.

"You don't even know what they're talking about, do you" said Lector shaking his head.

"No" Frosch replied smiling and looking up at Rogue. "But I know that Rogue can do it."

Smiling at his adorable exceed's nice comment, Rogue stared feeling like the others were right. As they were about to reach their destination, he felt his self-confidence build up after his talks with Yukino and Sting, and obviously Frosh's trusting behaviour.

"Just think about all the possible scenarios one could use it" they heard Levy saying.

"The only thing that comes to my mind is either stalking people or peeping on women" admitted Lacie, making Gajeel snicker.

"Don't be like this" said Levy. "It would be really useful to use when you were fighting against, like, a high number of enemies."

"But when you're up against a high number of enemies, being invisible won't help you one bit. Even if they fire at you randomly, the chances of they hitting you is way too high" Lacie said. "And why exactly are you guys going through the previous owner's junk?"

"I ain't going through anything" said Gajeel defensively. "Shrimp does."

"These are not junk" argued Levy. "There are several scrolls and spells that I've never even heard of or ones that were thought to be lost forever. Even some really powerful ones. And not only things about magic but historically and culturally important stories."

"This one has instructions on where to get the ingredients for a potion to enhance… um…" said Lily on a rather embarrassed tone.

"What?" asked Gajeel bluntly.

As the Sabertooth mages arrived where the others were talking, they saw Lily giving a yellowish paper to Lacie who was sitting on a seemingly intact table with coffee in her hand. She had a white long-sleeve shirt and greyish denim jeans on, hair up in a ponytail. Levy got up from a pile of papers and stood in front of her, waiting to hear what the scroll was written about.

"Mmm, all kinds of herbs and stuff. Yeah… Mixing them in the described proportions" Lacie read out loud, "may enhance your man's sexual performance for the time intervals given in the table below. Good."

Smiling, Lacie handed the paper to Levy, who was trying hard not to faint in her embarrassment. Seeing Lacie's indifference made her a bit more comfortable and she managed to compose herself. Though, she mentally reminded herself not to look at either boys around them. That might just ruin her performance.

"Alright, some of it may be junk" Levy said simply.

Being proud of herself for acting cool, she turned around to get back to sorting out all the documents and recipes. What she didn't notice before were the wide-eyed dragon slayers of Sabertooth awkwardly standing a few metres away from them, trying to act like they didn't hear anything. But they did. And Levy knew it. Seeing her face going red, Lacie didn't really understood why Levy was feeling embarrassed about some random dude's notes on potency-enhancing but she found the situation remarkably hilarious. Already grinning, she looked at the dragon slayers uncomfortable faces: Gajeel trying to play it cool and looking the exact opposite way Levy was standing, Rogue with a slight blush on his cheeks tucking his hands in his pockets and Sting scratching the back of his neck, looking like he was trying to start a conversation but failing at it. It was so hard not to laugh. But then she looked at Frosch and that made her crack. Frosch was standing next to Rogue, looking at Rogue first, then Sting, and finally Lacie, waving to her and showing the most adorable smile she's ever seen. Placing her coffee on the desk, she put her elbows on her legs, her arm hanging down between her legs, looking down, she still tried to hold back her chuckles and failed at it miserably. As her chuckles turned into laughter, everybody's attention turned toward her, making them feel even more awkward, if it was even possible.

"What's going on?" asked Lector innocently.

"Can you just stop?" asked Gajeel, crossing his arm.

"It's already really embarrassing. Don't make it even worse, please" said Lily.

"I'm sorry" Lacie said between muffled chuckles.

Thankfully, after the initial awkwardness, her laugh seemed to make the situation a bit better. At least now she was the one looking like an idiot for not being able to stop laughing. Seeing that she was a hopeless case Levy, who was already smiling as well, grabbed the nearest book she could find and threw it at her semi-seriously. Without looking up, Lacie held her arm up to avoid it hitting her head. As a result, the book fell on the table next to her, making the table suddenly collapse under her.

Surprised, everyone ran there to check on her and possibly help her up, except Gajeel.

"Good job, Shrimp. You finally made her shut up" he said chuckling.

"I'm sooo sorry" Levy whined. "I didn't mean to, I swear. I was just…"

As the two dragon slayers helped her up, Lacie looked over herself, covered in dust, pieces of wood and the precious coffee she didn't get to finish. Then looking at the paper she still held in her hand, she looked at Levy with a serious expression, making poor Levy feel really guilty.

"I'm sorry. Really" she repeated.

"Well, you should be" Lacie replied, making the others look at her in confusion. "You just made coffee spill all over this precious receipt."

Even though the others found this funny, Levy looked at Lacie with the evilest expression she could for playing with her emotions like this. Seeing that she was mad at her, Lacie quickly turned to the two dragon slayers beside her.

"Thank you, gentlemen" she said. "But I think I should leave now."

"Good idea" Levy said.

As she started making her way back to her accommodation to put some clean clothes on, she stopped a few metres away from the other and turned back, smiling.

"Hey, Levy" she said, making her turn to face her. "So what should I do with this?" she asked as she held up the coffee-soaked paper.

Gajeel was grinning like an idiot and the dragon slayer duo were trying to hide their smiles, while Levy was just staring at her with a menacing look. Seeing that the only answer she might get would be another flying book, she quickly left the scene.

"Umm… Levy" started Lily just to break the silence. "You're not actually mad at her, are you?"

"Nah" she replied with an evil smile as she got back to sort out a pile of papers.

"Are you sure?" Lily asked sceptically.

"Yeah. As soon as I get her back for this, we'll be fine."

"Never thought you to be the revengeful type" admitted Gajeel.

"Could you bring that box with the big 'x' on its side here?" she asked not even acknowledging her guild mate's comment.

"Can we help here with something?" asked Sting.

"Hello, everyone" they heard Lucy. "What are you guys up to?"

With that, they started to go through the paperwork and the books they found there. Levy worked out a system of grouping so the similar things could be gathered to one pile, which seemed to work just fine. As they were all reading, the exceeds got the job of putting the papers into the correct piles. Walking to one of said piles, Frosch noticed a big mirror standing behind a bookshelf. It was just barely visible from the place Frosch was standing but some part of the reflection could be seen. Looking into the mirror, Frosch's seen their reflection wave and smile at them and decided to wave back.

"Who are you waving at, Frosch?" asked Lector.

"Me" Frosch replied happily, pointing at the mirror.

"You mean, your reflection?" asked Lily.

"No" Frosch replied. "The other me. There."

"Fro, that's a mirror. There is no other you" explained Lector. "It was just your reflection you saw in the mirror. It was just you waving in the mirror."

"Hmm…" hummed Fro, thinking. "No. The other me waved first, and then I waved back."

"That's not how mirrors work, Frosch" said Lily.

"What's up, guys?" asked Lucy walking to where the exceeds were talking.

"I found another Frosch" said Fro with a proud smile, getting the attention of the other mages around.

"You did what?" asked Lucy looking at the exceeds in confusion.

"Frosch found a mirror" said Lily to make things clear.

Thinking, how cute the silly exceed was, Lucy patted Fro's head. Getting interested, Levy walked there to check out where that mirror was, as none of them seemed to notice it earlier.

"What is it doing behind a bookshelf?" asked Levy.

It turned out, that the bookshelf hiding the mirror was screwed to the wooden planks it was standing on. So after putting the things on the shelves into safety, Gajeel just ripped the bookshelf out of its place, along with the planks, making a big hole in the floor. Getting the mirror out of its hiding place, Levy started to examine if something was out of the ordinary about it.

"Seems ancient" said Lucy.

"Smells ancient, as well" commented Sting.

"Yeah" said Gajeel. "Just throw it out with the other junk."

"Why would we do that?" asked Levy almost indignantly. "Look, it's in perfect condition. Not even a scratch on its surface."

"Exactly" said Rogue, eyeing the strange furniture.

"What do you mean?" asked Lucy.

Looking back at the mirror, Levy started touching its surface. Thinking about it, she found the contrast of its condition and age strange. Seemed old and new at the same time. But only the surface of the actual mirror. The structure it was placed in looked really worn out and she thought she could make out letters, even words written on it.

"Oi, Shrimp" Gajeel said to her. "Stop touching that thing."

"There's something written in here. It must be some ancient language" Levy said.

"Maybe we should let the Magic Council take care of it. Might be an artefact or something" commented Lily.

"Tükörvilág ajtaja, nyílj meg előttem" read Levy. "What's that supposed to mean?"

~v~

Lacie could feel a strange, electricity-like feeling run through her body. It felt weird, but nothing really happened beside that it made her really uncomfortable for a second, so she just dismissed it, getting back to the task at hand. Changing into a white shirt with a picture of a pocket watch on the front, she left her room to get back to help the other with the preparations before the actual construction starts. Passing the receptionist of the inn, she said goodbye but got no reply. Stopping in the entryway, she took a step back to check on the old lady as it seemed pretty odd that she didn't reply.

"Mrs. Otose?" she asked, looking at the lady.

She was not moving, just standing behind the counter, seemingly looking at a magazine in front of her. Looking at her for a second, Lacie realised she was not blinking.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

Stepping closer, she looked at the frozen old lady. Well, she wasn't exactly frozen as she was breathing, at least. Her body temperature felt normal as well, but her eyes were unfocused, almost colourless.

"Please, don't be dead" Lacie said as she ran out of the building to get some help.

However, as she got out, the same sight greeted her: people standing on the streets in the funniest and most awkward positions and facial expressions, with colourless eyes staring into the nothingness.

"Not a single day can pass without any incidents, can it" she murmured.

Walking around town, checking out the people on the streets, she noticed something. The eyes of the mages and the magicless people looked different. First, she thought that mages might just react to this thing, whatever it was, differently than normal people. But that still didn't explain why she wasn't affected. Also, mages felt different as well. Like only their bodies were there. As she had no idea what might cause this, she decided to try one of her newest techniques out: finding people by their brain-wavelengths. She was working on this skill for some time now, but it took much time to be able to identify one's wavelength. During the past few weeks, she's been around Lyon most of the time, so she thought she'll try to find him like this. Focusing her thoughts and magic, she "turned on" this ability of hers, and she felt something weird. She couldn't differentiate between all the wavelengths around, but she felt that all of them were in the same place and her legs started moving on their own to follow them. She felt that she was getting closer. The thoughts of all the mages started filling her head. And not just the thoughts, but the feelings as well. She was scared. She had no idea what was happening to everyone but she felt their pain and fear. Whatever was happening, it scared everyone, and having her magic focused on finding them must've created some kind of mind-link between her and their minds because she could feel it all. She stopped.

She was back at that old house. The others were still there along with Lucy. Things seemed much more organised then when thing looked when she left. But there was something she didn't notice before. Something weird. Levy was standing about a metre and a half far from a large mirror that showed no reflections at all, looking back at Gajeel, seemingly in the middle of saying something. And she felt that everybody was there. Inside that mirror. At this point, Lacie was terrified but she couldn't let everybody's feelings take over her. She wanted to take a step closer to the mirror but her instincts told otherwise. Everybody was there, she could feel it.

"Okay…" Lacie sighed. "Think."

Everyone seemed to be affected by some kind of spell that made them stop whatever they were doing, but time wasn't stopped. Mages were affected differently; someone or something left their bodies there and transported their consciousness into the mirror. But it didn't work on her so this was either some kind of illusion or a type of telepathic ability to get people out of their bodies. Either way, she had to help them. Somehow. Examining the mirror again, she saw something scribbled on its side.

"Open the door to the…" she translated. "Mirror World? What?"

Her head was throbbing, the world started spinning and she could feel her stomach turn from all the negative emotions running through her. But she couldn't stop now. What if they can't make it out on their own? What if that thing or person won't let them leave this Mirror World? And what are the chances that she won't get stuck in there as well? Hell, she had to calm down. Otherwise she'll have no chance of rescuing her friends. Again, this 'fighting for your friends' thing. At least this time, it wasn't her fault that they were in danger. Well, she didn't think it was. Anyway, she needed a plan. Something simple, and preferably having three steps. It was a kind of habit or hers. Making plans with three steps.

First of all, try not to throw up. Secondly, get inside the mirror without losing connection with reality. Finally, get everyone back to the real world. There you go, three steps. Though, it only sounded simple, she had no idea how to carry it out. And she was not sure which of these steps was the easiest to do. Her headache was getting worse. She was not used to this ability of hers. There was no way one could get used to feeling all these people's feelings at the same time. That's why she kept it turned off all the time. And obviously, she had no other option but to use it now.

"Stop lamenting, Lacie" she mumbled, sitting down in front of the mirror. "So you like scaring people, don't you? Let's see how you like being afraid, then."

~v~

Rogue was awakened by the sharp pain he felt all over his body. Though, he didn't remember what he did that made him feel this bad. Damn, he didn't even remember falling asleep. Opening his eyes, it was so dark that first, he thought he somehow failed to do so. But his eyes were open and he saw nothing. He was lying on the black floor in complete darkness. Frosch, Sting, Lector and the Fairies he was with were nowhere to be seen. Not only that, Rogue couldn't smell them or feel any presence around.

"No reason looking for them" he heard a way too familiar voice talking.

"You can't be here" Rogue said, looking around to find the source of the voice.

"Why's that?" asked the voice.

"We… we defeated you" said Rogue.

"'We?' Does that include you, as well?" teased the voice. "What was your contribution to this 'victory'?"

"I…" Rogue started. But he couldn't think of any reasonable answer. He couldn't think at all. Even though he knew this couldn't be happening, he was still there talking to him. But no matter where he looked, he could see only darkness.

"That's right" the voice continued. "You can't do anything to stop me. You can't defeat me. Not alone."

"I'm not alone" Rogue managed to say with the remaining strength and faith he had.

"Aren't you?" laughed the voice. "Actually, you're right. I'm here with you. I'm always here with you."

Looking behind, Rogue finally saw him. Face to face with his future self, yet again.

"This can't be real" Rogue said faintly.

The only answer he got was a laugh. His strength was washed away by fear. Fear of what he will become. Sting always said that he won't let this happen but Sting was not here. Nobody was. Just him and what he will become. He wanted to punch that annoying smirking face in front of him, but he couldn't. He felt like he was petrified by fear. His mind was racing, losing Frosch and images of his friends being murdered by his own hands kept flashing in his head. Killing Sting to obtain his power, the suffering of all his guild mates and everyone he knows and loves. Loves. A strange feeling ran through his body. A strange and familiar feeling, something he knew he felt before. Something he only felt when a certain someone was around him.

"Lacie" Rogue whispered, looking around.

"What was that?" his future self asked.

Rogue was sure that she was around. He couldn't feel anything before but now there was a presence. Her presence, he was sure about that.

"If you're waiting for someone to come for you, it's useless" future Rogue said. "There is nothing you…"

"Shut up" said Rogue, darting his eyes in the direction of future Rogue. "Lacie? Are you here?" he asked, searching for her.

That's when he saw something extraordinary. Butterflies. Hundreds, maybe thousands of small purple butterflies flying toward him. Stopping in front of him, the butterflies started circling in a cone-like shape, quickly materialising into a human shape. Into Lacie. Smiling, Rogue stepped closer to make sure he wasn't just imagining things.

"Are…" he breathed out unsurely, taking her hands into his, "are you really here?"

"Yes" she said smiling. "And no."

"What do you think you're doing?" future Rogue asked.

"We don't have much time. Everyone's trapped in this… Illusion. Maybe. I'm not sure what this is but I wasn't affected by it" she started explaining. "So I projected myself here to get everyone out but I can't do it alone. I need your help, Rogue."

"My help?" he asked, confused. "Are you sure I'm the one you should ask?"

"There's nobody else I would ask" she said, reassuringly squeezing his hands.

"What could I do?" he asked, still unsure.

"Nothing, you useless piece of trash" future Rogue shouted.

As Rogue started turning his head toward his direction, he could feel Lacie's hand on his face, making it gently turn back to face her. Slowly looking up at him with kind, trusting eyes, she just smiled at him for a second.

"I have a plan. And I need someone I can trust to carry it out" she said. "You can help me, help your friends. You can save them."

"Don't make me laugh. You can't even save yourself" laughed future Rogue.

She saw the conflict in his eyes. She didn't know what Rogue could see or hear in there, what his demons were but she needed him to defeat them. She knew they'd just met and she wasn't sure what their relationship could be labelled. She knew she really liked him. But were they friends? People here seemed to treat each other as friends in no time. She had no idea how Rogue felt, but she had to take the risk.

"Rogue" she said getting his attention back. "When I made this plan, I had to put all my faith in one person that I could ask to help me. There's a reason a chose you. I believe you can do this. That we can do this. I trust you. Can you trust me, Rogue?"

From the corner of his eye, he could see his future self vanishing along with all the negative emotions he'd been feeling since he woke up here being washed away. He didn't really understand how someone he'd just met a few days ago could give him so much strength and confidence. Actually, he didn't really care about it at that moment. He looked into her eyes as he carefully placed his hands on the two sides of her face. Closing his eyes, he leaned down to plant a kiss on Lacie's lips. Without thinking, Lacie raised herself on tiptoes with eyes closed until their lips met. It was a bit nervous, unsure, and didn't last longer than a few seconds. It was simple, soft and so goddamn fulfilling for the both of them.

"So… I guess that's a yes" she breathed out with a nervous smile.


End file.
